Heart of a Miracle
by Kitsu Sakuma
Summary: Raven has been assigned to the Guardian Force. When he arrives, he finds something more than he could have ever bargained for... Raven/OC (Nightfalcon) and a little Van/Fiona. R&R, please.
1. They Meet

~1~

   As he stepped out of the Genobreaker, he looked around at the Republican base he had been assigned to. Van was walking out of the door, followed by the rest of the Guardian Force. Raven looked at the GF. 'The same bunch of idiots…' he thought, but as he scanned them he saw a new member… a pretty girl with blonde hair. She had black streaks running through her long, dusty-gold colored locks. She looked straight at him with piercing cerulean blue eyes. Raven lingered on her face for a moment, and then he hopped down off the Geno. Shadow un-fused with it and landed next to him with a soft mechanical _thud_. Raven looked at Van and narrowed his eyes. 'Why'd I have to be assigned to the same battalion as him?' he asked inwardly. 

   Van looked at Raven with a bit of… what was it? Loathing? Jealousy? Hatred? Maybe a little of all three. They shook hands, and while doing so, had a competition; who could squeeze hardest?  Raven won. Van sneered; Raven smirked. They went inside, and a Major, Krendowitz, walked into the control room. 

" Welcome, Raven. You have been assigned to the Guardian Force because we are…" 

"In need of a new Major…" Raven mumbled as he put his boots up on the table. 

"… confident your piloting skills will be put to the test." Raven yawned. After a little while of annoying the Major, he took his boots off the table and caught that new girl looking at him… that girl… she was different. He could sense it. He looked away, but he could still feel her blue eyes burning into the back of his head.

   After Major Krendowitz had finished blabbering on about this, that, and Zoids, (which seemed to take forever) Raven took the initiation. 

"Fire the anti-Zoid missiles!" he heard someone say in the background of his comlink. He flew up in the Genobreaker and shot his nose gun at the missiles. They blew up 10 yards in front of him, and as he soared through the smoke, fired a Charged Particle Beam at the line of Command Wolves ahead of him. When he finally reached the base, everybody clapped - except Van. Raven had done better than he had… and with more style, too. 

   Raven came back to the control room. Van came up to him and said that he had forgotten to introduce the newest member of the Guardian Force. Raven wondered about her; yes, he knew Van would be introducing _her_ to him. 

"This is Nightfalcon," Van said, and he almost looked proud to have her on the Guardian Force. The blonde girl with black streaks in her hair stepped forward to shake hands with Raven. "Hello, Raven." She said in a cheerfully dark voice. She sounded mysterious, yet… nice, somehow… She held out her hand, which Raven somehow could not stop himself from shaking, and he replied with an awkward 'hi'. She smiled at him, and he swore his heart jumped into his throat. Who was she? Why was he so… uncomfortable around her? Why was she different from anybody he had ever met? How?

   Nightfalcon was wearing a suit that indicated she was a Private. 'She just started with the GF too,' Raven thought. He wanted to keep his eye on her, just in case…

   A couple weeks later, Raven, Nightfalcon, Thomas, Van and Irvine were assigned to a trial run on Mt. Isolina as the New and Improved Guardian Force. Raven watched as Nightfalcon jumped into a red and black… zoid. He didn't know what it was. When he and Shadow got ready to mobilize, she popped up on a comlink. 

"Do you like my Zoid?" she asked, with a very proud smile on her face. 

"What is it?" he inquired.

"I call it the Thunderhawk," she stated, "I developed it myself. It's a combination of a Storm Sworder and a new type of zoid called the Berserk Fury." She was confident about her knowledge of Zoids. 

"A… Berserk… Fairy?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Fury," she corrected, "it's kind of like your Geno. Only it's a little more… complex." She was smiling very mischievously at him now, almost like she dared him to deny her last statement. He couldn't resist. He smiled back.  
"Well, it _is_ a pretty nice zoid. Let's see how well it stacks up to my Genobreaker," He teased. 

"You're on." And with that, she smiled, winked, and closed the comlink. 'She is… she… knows something… and she's not afraid of me…' he trailed off in his mind, and mobilized the Geno, eager to see what Nightfalcon and her Thunderhawk could do.


	2. Setup

"Lieutenant Flyheight, sir?" Nightfalcon saluted and snapped to attention. 

"Yes?" 

"Sir, could Raven and I have a competition to see who's better at piloting? Only if we have time, sir…" 

"Sure. I'd love to see the only female pilot of the Guardian Force beat Raven in a piloting competition." Van winked at her, and she smiled back at him. "And you really don't have to call me Lieutenant, Nightfalcon. I'm fine with just 'Van'."

"Ok, Lieu-… Van," she said, and was honored that The Pilot Who Beat The Death Saurer thought of her as an equal.

"Hey, how about I get the courses set up right now?" He was very eager to watch the two finest pilots in the GF (besides him, or so he thought) duke it out in a course of sheer skill. Even though Van told Nightfalcon that she didn't need to look up to him as a superior officer, she was still very respectful.

"Thank you, sir," she said, automatically adding the word 'sir' into the thanks. "I'll go get Raven!" and with that, she flew out the door. But a moment later, she poked her head back in, saluted, said "SIR!" and smiled, and flew out again. Van chuckled at her. She brought something new to the Guardian Force. Humor. Or maybe a sense that they were invincible.  No, both.

   Raven was still asleep when Nightfalcon knocked on his door. She waited for 45 seconds without a reply, knocked again, and the door opened. Shadow stood there, looking at her with his big blue eyes. 

"Hey, Shadow, where's Raven?" Shadow stood aside to let Nightfalcon see his master. He was sound asleep, snoring, hanging off his bed by a leg and an arm, and drooling. (A/N if you can't picture this, please try. Very interesting mental image. O_~) it was comical to her, and she giggled a bit. 

"Rrraaaarrr *please, come in*" 

"Oh… uh, ok Shadow…" She smiled at him. Shadow trotted over to the edge of Raven's bed as Nightfalcon sat down on a chair. Shadow nudged Raven gently with his nose, and Raven swatted him away. Nightfalcon heard him mumble something like 'Stupid Organoid…'. 

"Oh- six-thirty, soldier," Nightfalcon said. With this, Raven's eyes popped open to stare right straight into her sweet face. She looked serious, ready-to-hurt-if-not-kill. Then she spoke very calmly; "Wake up. We have a competition to attend to."    

   He sprang up from his resting place and fell over. She burst out laughing and he glared at her. Nightfalcon glared right back, but Raven…… he started smiling… a very odd smile… then he shook his head and snapped, "Hey, what're you doing in my quarters?"

"Shadow invited me in…" she blushed, because she knew she shouldn't be there… Raven was still in his boxers… 

"Well… get goin' 'til I'm ready…" he said, and blushed too. She walked toward the door slowly. He watched her and waited until she was gone. Then he started to dress very quickly. 

"HEY!" He caught up to her in the hall. She looked at him, surprised. She also shrunk back a little, thinking she had done something wrong.

"Don't worry, I usually don't bite," he said with a wink. Nightfalcon looked up at him, and smiled. 

"Nice pick up line," she grinned.

"WHAAAAAT!?!" He looked insulted, almost. But there was a gleam in his eye that told otherwise. He furrowed his brow and asked what that was all about.

"I know you know, Raven."

"Know what?" he asked.

"You know there's something about me that's different. I feel it about you, too." At this, she walked faster, and he completely stopped, bewildered. He couldn't say anything. He just followed slowly to the course setup.


	3. The Competition

~3~

   Nightfalcon walked out onto the competition field, followed by Raven, who was still in a bit of a shock. She climbed up into the cockpit of the Thunderhawk. Raven did the same with the Geno.  In both of the Zoids, the pilots were watching a comlink. Van was speaking to them. 

"Now listen, you two. I have created a ground course for Raven, and an air course for Nightfalcon. They are exactly the same, except with different target zoids, I guess. This is based on how precise your sights are aimed, and also at how well you and your Zoid cooperate.  There will be … aww, well, you'll see soon enough. I don't want to drone on forever…"

"You already are, Van, so shut up and let us go." Raven looked a bit irritable. Just a bit. Then Nightfalcon popped up onto a comlink in Raven's face. 

"Is that any way to speak to a superior officer?" She looked like she was kidding, and she was.

"Van Fahrenheit, Leader of the Guardian Force, I'm sorry, LIEUTENANT." Raven was smirking violently. 

"Better…" Raven heard Nightfalcon say as Van started to blow up on Raven. Raven turned the comlink off. Then Fiona popped up in a new window. 

"I think I'll take over for Van… I'm gonna be the timer and scorer. I mean, look at the guy…" the comlink was panned over to show Van on the ground screaming something about Mercury, thermometers... apparently something caused by Raven's insult. Raven and Nightfalcon both cracked up laughing at the same exact time. Fiona was a bit bemused, but she got stars in her eyes and sighed. 

"What?" Both Raven and Nightfalcon looked at Fiona and got an odd look on their faces.

"Nothing…" Raven and Nightfalcon face faltered. Fiona was pushed aside and Irvine appeared on the screen. 

"This is my competition now. Get ready to mobilize. I'm not going to screw around like those two." He thrusted a thumb at Van and Fiona who were on the floor, Van rocking, Fiona with huge stars in her eyes muttering about something or other…

"And when I say 'Go', you two will see your first targets. Try to make it to the goal at the opposite end of the course. I will time you. Points will be given for time and accuracy. Whoever has the most points wins. Ready… GO!" The Thunderhawk and Genobreaker both roared and took off. They shot through the course like bullets. Nobody even saw the zoids get hit; it happened so fast they flew then fell. Or in Raven's case, ran and fell. Raven was pushing the Geno to maximum output, and Nightfalcon was keeping an incredible pace. She hit all the targets with absolute perfection; so did Raven. She activated her blades and soared through the line of Redlers; he shot down all the Command Wolves and Rev Raptors in his line. The goal loomed up ahead of both of the pilots, taunting them. Raven was concentrating on Nightfalcon because he thought she was a little ahead of him. And because of that girl, he missed a target, and finished faster, but lost points for the Zoid that was left. 

   The cockpit of the Thunderhawk opened, revealing a very enthusiastic female pilot. She took her helmet off, and flew down off the giant bird zoid; falling so hard she nearly broke her ankle from the recoil. She wasn't very coordinated for an 18-year old. The Geno's cockpit opened, the seat was lowered, and Raven stood up. He looked down at Nightfalcon and laughed. She was partying over there. He decided he would join. He hopped down, not even stumbling, and ran over to her. 

"That was amazing! Nobody's ever even been able to keep up to me before! And you almost beat me!" He was totally astonished at how good a Zoid pilot this girl was. 

   Irvine came running out, and he looked dumbfounded. 

"How… how did you…" He looked at the stopwatch. "Raven: 45.2 seconds. Nightfalcon: 45.7 seconds… you guys were AMAZING!! You destroyed 30 Zoids and maneuvered through a battlefield in less than 50 seconds!! WOW!" Irvine was blabbering on, and on, and on… you get the idea… 

"Irvine…" Nightfalcon tried, unsuccessfully.

"IRVINE!" Raven yelled. That shut him up for a minute. "Nightfalcon has a question." Irvine looked at Nightfalcon. 

"Who won?" was the simple question that escaped her lips. 

"Uhh… oh, right… points… Raven, you missed a Rev Raptor, so points will be taken away for that. Nightfalcon, you finished .5 seconds behind Raven, so points will be taken for that… oh…" Irvine's face fell into utter confusion. " It's a dead tie…" Raven and Nightfalcon looked at each other with their jaws dropped. Nightfalcon was the first to recover. She held out her hand in a very sportsman-like (or in this case, sportswoman-like) manner. "Good match, Raven." She said softly, with a smile teasing her lips. 

"Yeah. That was awesome. Thanks for the entertainment. It'll hold me over for a while." He shook her hand, and looked into her eyes… He saw himself. And that's all he saw. 


	4. A Date? OO

You people really like my story! I can't believe it!! Thank you so much!!! This is the first story I've ever written. Thanks again, guys. ^______^  This chappy's kinda long, but it's one of the best ones here besides the last. Humor, romance, action… it's got it all. Enjoy!

~4~

   Raven snapped out of that trance, and Nightfalcon was smiling. 

"Would you please let go of my hand? You're kinda cutting off my circulation."

"Oh! I'm sorry…" He let go and put his hand in his pocket, and blushed. 

"Let's go see how the people in the control room liked our little match." Nightfalcon said, and started running back to the base. Raven ran after her. She was speedy. But he wasn't about to give up yet. He ran up to her and looked at her. Boy, she was really kicking it into high gear. And… he couldn't believe it… she beat him to the base. He was so stunned that he ran into the door. She helped him up, giggling, and she asked if he was ok. 

"Yeah… I'll be… fine…" He winced. She led him to the control room. It was completely silent as they walked in. 

"Uh, could someone please get and ice-pack?" She looked around, and some kid with red hair ran to get an ice pack. She sat Raven down in a chair, and everybody looked at her. 

"What? He ran into the door…" She looked at him again. "Poor guy…"

"What… a… spectacular… RACE!" Van finally spoke. His eyes were like a little boys when his father told him they were going fishing the next day. It looked like he had seen a giant papaya… Either way, he walked over to Raven and Nightfalcon and looked at them like they were going to turn into something beautiful… like butterflies or something. Then he said, "You two will be the special forces. If we can get you to work together, you'll be an unstoppable team! Even I know when to admit defeat. You two are WAY better than I'll EVER be!" Nightfalcon was smiling, and Raven was just looking at Van. It seemed he had recovered. Then, the kid returned with and ice pack. He saw he was too late, so he just put it in the fridge. Raven stood up. He looked Van square in the eyes, and said, "We'd be happy to lead the Special Forces. Wouldn't we, Nightfalcon?" She was astonished that Raven spoke for himself and her. She couldn't say anything, but she nodded. 

"Great! Then I'll get you new outfits to lead the Special Forces. Thank you so much for doing this. We'll be unbeatable!!" And then he laughed. Quite maniacally, actually. Raven raised an eyebrow, and Nightfalcon just stood there with both her eyebrows raised in a worried yet unserious look.   
"Uh, Van? Why are you laughing?" she asked, and the look on her face got more screwed up. Raven was holding his face in his hand and shaking his head. 

"Oh, um, sorry… got a little out of control, there…" He stopped and blushed. Then everybody else started to laugh at him. He flushed deeper red, and ran out of the room. The audience stopped laughing, and Nightfalcon chased him down. 

"Van, we weren't laughing at you. Now go get those suits, ok? I'll come if you want…

"… us to." She turned around and Raven was walking down the hall, smirking. " I'll come too. I want to see where all the uniforms are." He was pretty good at covering up his emotions. But Nightfalcon was good at sensing them. She smiled, and offered Van a hand-up from where he fell when she tackled him. He took it, and she helped hoist him up. Raven had stopped about 3 yards behind them, and crossed his arms. Van started walking down the hall, Nightfalcon and Raven trailing behind. Raven stepped up to Nightfalcon's side, and she paid him no mind. 

"Hey, Nightfalcon…" She looked at him this time. 

"Hm?" 

"… Uh… I was wondering… if maybe…" He put his hand behind his head and scratched his neck. "… maybe you'd come out tonight and… um…" He was blushing deeply, and Nightfalcon was grinning ear to ear. "Willyougooutwithmetonightplease?" It all just came out in a long string of words. She looked away, smiling and blushing, and replied.

"If Van doesn't have us out on the front lines or anything, I'd be happy to, Raven."  He was blushing so bad she thought his face was going to explode from all the pressure. But he was also smiling. 'YES!' he thought. She scooted toward him a bit more, and he didn't move away. He just kept walking with his head down, and Van looked back at exactly that moment. Apparently he hadn't heard the whole ordeal that just went on, and he said, "Hey, Raven, looks like you got a not-so-secret admirer." He was grinning. Then Raven walked up to him and said, "Looks like your observation isn't all that great." Van's brow furrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?" he growled. "Well, it's supposed to mean that you didn't hear what I just asked her." Van's eyes got wide and disbelieving. 

"Nightfalcon, is that… t-true?" Van looked a little either disgusted or jealous, she couldn't tell. "Is what true, Van?" She looked like 'hey, what did I do?' and waited for an answer. 

"Are you going to… to… GO OUT with Raven?!?" He screamed at her, and this made Raven a little angry. "Come on, Van, it's her choice. Aren't we going to get those suits?" Raven asked. He kept walking, and Van soon regained his leadership of the small line. Raven and Nightfalcon walked side-by-side, and in perfect pace with each other. They weren't even trying to. They just… did. 

   When they finally got to the closet, Van turned on the light and stepped through a line of uniforms. It took him a minute to come back, but when he did, he was carrying twin Night-Blue suits. They had the Guardian Force logo embroidered in silver on the left arm, and a couple complicated buckles and zippers. He handed one each to Raven and Nightfalcon, silently, and walked back down the hall. That was unusual for him. Usually he couldn't stop talking. But he was _silent_. Raven and Nightfalcon went back to their respective quarters, and tried on the suits. A perfect fit for both. After they tried on the Special Guardian Force - or SGF for short - suits, they dressed in normal clothes. Nightfalcon put on some Flare jeans and her own special shirt, which was pretty much a tube-top with a belt attached to it.Raven just wore his good old suit with the metallic shoulder pads.  They met at he front gate, and left their organoids there. Yes, Nightfalcon had an organoid, too. He was green with gold eyes. Trance. Raven and Nightfalcon hopped into the Thunderhawk, and they took off. They were going mach 1.5 until they had to stop short. In the middle of the sky was a Whale King. A red one. At the same time, Raven and Nightfalcon both muttered one word; "Hiltz."   And Hiltz it was. Inside the Whale King stood a tall man with red hair, a Red organoid named Ambient, and… a white wolf with metal patches all over its body. An old friend of Nightfalcon's. Raven narrowed his eyes. Riece was in the Whale King, also. And Specular. 

"Let me pilot the Thunderhawk for a minute, will you?" Raven spoke with fury in his cool, calm voice. 

"Sure…" Nightfalcon replied, not really aware that she had answered. Raven got up, and moved to the front of the cockpit. Nightfalcon was staring at the Whale King, and didn't move to let Raven pilot. He tapped her on the shoulder, and she jumped. 

"Oh, uh… you wanted to pilot?" she asked. Raven nodded. Nightfalcon unbuckled her seatbelt and got up. Raven sat down and put on the seatbelt. "It'll take me a minute, but I need to get used to the Zoid first." Nightfalcon nodded, and asked what he was going to do. He told her to stay down. She obeyed, afraid of what the Once-Evil pilot had up his sleeve. Nightfalcon kneeled, and crawled up to the front, right next to Raven. He looked at her, and yelled "Hey! What're you doing?!  I don't want you to get hurt!" Then he blushed. She touched his arm, and said in a very gentle voice, "I'll never get hurt when you're around. I trust you, Raven." She smiled up at him, and he looked at her with a very odd look on his face. 

"You… trust… me?" He pointed a finger at himself. She nodded. "Wow… nobody's ever trusted… me… before…" He smiled, and she could tell he was proud. "Okay, Thunderhawk, please, let me pilot you." The Thunderhawk roared a piercing screech, like a mechanical eagle, and the control panel sprung to life, just like Nightfalcon was the pilot. 

"There you go, Raven, he likes you." Nightfalcon was smiling at him. He smiled back. "There's two," he said. He looked a bit forlorn. 

"Give them time. They only know you as an enemy. Show them the side of you that I see. They'll learn quickly that you're really a good person." She told him. He nodded and said, "Alright, let's see how this baby handles…" He pushed forward on the levers, and the Thunderhawk soared straight at the Whale King. Nightfalcon grabbed his arm. 

"What're you doing??? We're gonna crash!!" Her eyes were wide with fear. Raven's face was set. He soared straight at the Whale King, and didn't even blink. "Raven! NO! Please don't crash my Thunderhawk!! Please don't crash US!!" She was screaming. He told her to calm down. He knew what he was doing. He pulled up at the last possible moment, and Nightfalcon let out her breath and stopped shaking. He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Don't be scared. You told me you trusted me." She looked at him, and he had a very uncharacteristically gentle smile on his face. Her stomach fluttered. He was so gorgeous! She smiled sweetly at him, and he turned back to piloting. He landed very stealthily on the roof, and opened the cockpit's canopy. He stood up, and stepped out onto the outer part of the cockpit. He held out a hand to help Nightfalcon out. 

"You coming?"


End file.
